While EE scrambles to spread its LTE network far and wide before the other UK carriers get into the 4G business, it also wants to flex some spectrum muscle. The network’s announced it’s planning to double the LTE allocation on its 1800MHz band (from 2 x 10MHz to 2 x 20MHz), which it claims will increase download speeds to an average of 20 Mbps, topping out at 80 Mbps. Ten of the 11 original 4G launch cities will be seeing this bandwidth boost first: London, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield. EE doesn’t want you to think it’s done expanding, though, and says it’ll continue to make use of its MHz and GHz by rolling out boring, normal LTE in new areas whilst doubling up in others. The first ten cities are due to receive “double-speed” 4G by summer, which we assume means around the time summer is supposed to happen.
Update: EE’s Howard Jones has added on Twitter that the network will start trialing carrier aggregation, LTE-A (that’s even better 4G) later in 2013. We’ve asked for more details and will fill you in when we hear more.
EE will be trialling carrier aggregation, LTE-A, for 4G within 2013. We’ll be the first anywhere in the world to do so. #onestepahead
Is the HTC One the best Android smartphone around, and has the wait for the AT&T LTE version been worth it? We’ve already spent more than 6,000 words on the HTC One, back in our review of the European version, but this was our chance to put the first US-specific variant to the test. To do that we took it out into the wild to put the key selling points – specifically the UltraPixel camera and the 4G speed – on trial at the New York Auto Show, among other places, as well as to see if the non-removable battery is a deal-breaker in the face of the fast-incoming Samsung Galaxy S 4. Read on to find out how the HTC One fared.
Design, Performance, and Usability
We’ve already comprehensively covered the core proposition of the HTC One in our original review. Suffice to say, the appeal of the matte-finish metal handset hasn’t waned since then. Build quality keeps it at the top of the pile of Android devices in recent memory, for a start, and having weighed the One against the Galaxy S 4 at the Samsung phone’s launch, it’s clear that HTC has the edge in design and quality. One mild concern is the tendency of the white polycarbonate inset strip running the edge of the phone to pick up color smudges when we kept it in our jeans pocket, though these usually rubbed off.
Some of the details stand out after a longer period with the phone. BoomSound has a ridiculous name, but we can’t argue with the audio performance: we’ve found ourselves showing off more video, as well as reaching for the One in preference to other devices when it comes to consuming multimedia from services like Netflix, simply because the front-facing stereo speakers are simply that good. The power from the speakers is also incredibly useful when using the One as a navigation device in the car, while the screen they flank is no slouch either, with a combination of 1080p Full HD resolution and a color balance that’s refreshingly level rather than skewed to over-saturation.
HTC One walkthrough:
Sense 5 and the BlinkFeed homescreen – which pulls together news, Facebook, Twitter, calendar, and tips from the phone – continues to draw our attention, even with the gloss of newness taken off it. With its Flipboard-style feed of headlines and images, BlinkFeed makes for a great distraction, though we can’t help but wish HTC would hurry up and add offline caching of articles, the ability to add your own RSS feeds, and Google+/Google Now integration. The latter would arguably make the biggest difference; we like the low-noise way the One slots your upcoming appointments into the first page of BlinkFeed tiles each day, and it would make a perfect fit for Google Now suggestions.
Overall, Sense 5 combined with Android 4.1 performs well, and with the exception of Photosphere we’ve not really missed anything from the very latest version of Jelly Bean. AT&T’s version of the One includes a customized browser, but despite our initial concerns, performance actually improved over the stock phone. In SunSpider, the test of JavaScript performance, the European One scored 1,118.9ms versus the 1,035.1ms of the AT&T version (in SunSpider, faster is better). Overall, we had no issues with the One’s quadcore 1.7GHz Snapdragon 600 processor pulling its weight running apps, and even AT&T’s preloaded software – which includes DriveMode, Family Map, Locker, Navigator, Ready2Go, Messages, myAT&T, Smart Wi-Fi, YPmobile, and Device Help – are neatly clustered into a folder rather than scattershot across the app launcher.
It’s not all perfect, though. A lingering frustration is the black menu bar that often appears in third-party apps, where HTC has followed Android guidelines and dropped a dedicated menu key, but apps aren’t yet putting the three-dot softkey where it should be, tucked out of the way in the corner. That means you lose a stripe of your 4.7-inch screen to a single control (the functionality of which varies widely) but, more annoyingly, the on-screen keyboard shifts up to accommodate it.
That has at times played havoc with our typing, our thumbs not extending sufficiently to avoid the menu key and thus interrupting text entry. Admittedly, it’s not HTC’s fault, but it’s an ongoing annoyance that apps not adhering to the latest Android UI guidelines continue to hit the Play store.
Camera and Multimedia
HTC’s UltraPixel strategy has proved divisive, with the company chasing more light instead of more megapixels. We’ve covered how the One uses its 4-megapixels extensively in our review, but we also gave the smartphone its chance to shine out in the wild, taking it to the New York Auto Show last month.
Your average tradeshow is tough going on a camera, whether it’s a DSLR, a point-and-shoot, or on a smartphone. The lighting ranges from ridiculously bright, meaning you get masses of reflections and glare, to moodily dark, making details difficult to pick out and the threat of noise a constant. In-between, there’s all manner of colored lights that can confuse a camera’s sensor.
The NY Auto Show was no different, but the HTC One held its own for the most part. All of the photos and video from our coverage of the new Chevrolet Camaro Z28 and the Corvette Stingray was taken using the One, for example, with us also using the Zoe “highlight” feature that creates summary videos based on 3.6s snippets of video and burst-stills.
For the photos, despite the mixed lighting conditions, the quality was surprisingly high. Blur is noticeably absent, the One being able to stick to faster shutter-speeds and lower ISOs thanks to its greater appetite for light, and photos which combine well-lit areas alongside much darker ones are impressively balanced. The phone is fast, too: back-to-back shots are roughly as swift as you can repeatedly tap the on-screen button.
Video, meanwhile, looks great at 1080p Full HD resolution, with the same impressive low-light and mixed-lighting performance as for stills. However, the noisy show floor proved a challenge for the One’s stereo microphones at times, however: you can certainly make out speech compared to background noise, but it lacks the pinpoint clarity you’d get with a directional microphone or a dedicated clip-on mic.
Nonetheless, for immediacy and convenience, the One certainly held its own. At full resolution and in perfect lighting, HTC’s choice of big pixels rather than lots of them struggles somewhat, but in more everyday situations the convenience of being able to take low-light situations in your stride wins out.
The downside with the One – and, specifically, with Zoe photography, which simultaneously grabs 20 stills and 3.6s of Full HD video – remains how multimedia is managed, particularly off the phone. We’ve already highlighted how poorly that plays with auto-upload services, such as those offered by Dropbox, Google+, and Facebook, which basically fill your cloud storage with dozens of nearly-identical shots. The AT&T version is no different in that respect, and HTC desperately needs to step up and address offloading media with its HTC Sync Manager app.
While it’s at it, we wouldn’t argue with more themes and flexibility for the Zoe highlights system: the One’s automatically curated showreels, which come complete with transitions, filters, and background music. We’re still impressed by how neatly the One knits these together, but the option for longer clips (currently it’s 30 seconds only) and the ability to use your own music would make the feature considerably more useful. We’ve found people are much more willing to watch our photos and video when they’re stitched into a highlight reel, and so a greater number of presets (out of the box there are six to choose between) would make it all the more engaging.
HTC Sense, Zoe, and Highlights demo:
One advantage those looking to AT&T for their One will have is capacity. The carrier has the US exclusive on the 64GB version, other networks making do with the 32GB model, and given the amount of data Zoe photography creates, and that there’s no microSD storage option, that makes a big difference. It’s not a cheap way to boost capacity, though: AT&T is asking $199.99 for the 32GB One, or $100 more to double the memory.
Phone, LTE, and Battery
HTC’s BoomSound speaker technology means the One has no problems pushing out in-call audio, and happily performance on AT&T’s network matched up with that. We had no problems keeping a signal, even though HTC squeezes the One’s antennas into the tiny polycarbonate notches in the unibody case, and hardly a dropped call, even in areas where coverage was patchy.
We tested LTE performance in multiple locations where AT&T currently offers service, including New York City, Denver, Wichita, and San Francisco. Speeds ranged from as much as 39Mbps downloads and nearly 19Mbps uploads, location depending, though averaged out at 15.95Mbps down and 7.06Mbps up. In contrast, we saw peeks of 37Mbps down and nearly 11Mbps up on an iPhone 5 using Verizon’s LTE network.
LTE has a reputation for being power hungry, and while the One’s 2,300 mAh battery isn’t small, the fact that it can’t be removed – unlike, say, the battery in Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 – has left some wary of the quadcore smartphone. In practice, we’ve found the One has sufficient legs to last through the day, particularly if its power management systems are turned on. These put data to sleep after periods of extended inactivity, waking them only occasionally to check for new messages and other updates, as well as reducing screen brightness and enabling other frugal systems.
Over the course of a sixteen hour day, then, with a mixture of cellular and WiFi connectivity, we saw roughly 30-percent of the battery left. More patchy use of WiFi saw LTE take a greater toll, with 20-percent left after just over twelve hours. However, even when we forgot to plug the charger in overnight, the One proved frugal, only dropping a few percentage points thanks to the data throttling.
Wrap-Up
Nothing about AT&T’s version of the HTC One has changed our positive impression of the smartphone. In fact, native LTE support for the US has only improved our takeaway opinion: the One is beautifully constructed, slickly designed, fast, has thoughtful software tweaks – a few third-party app UI glitches aside – and a great, flexible camera.
The road ahead for HTC isn’t going to be an easy one. Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 is the specter on the near horizon, and for however much it may offer an evolutionary step up from its Galaxy S III predecessor, it comes with the might of the South Korean company’s prodigious marketing machine (and its equally massive budget). In contrast, the One sees HTC take a far greater risk than it has in recent years – in investment in construction, camera strategy, and software – and, for the most part, that pays off in the quality of the overall device.
The Samsung Galaxy S 4 is, if last year’s model is anything to go by, likely to be the default choice for Android buyers in 2013. However, the HTC One is arguably the more thoughtful choice. In AT&T form, it’s our favorite Android handset of the moment.
In the race to bring 4G services to Australia, Vodafone’s been the sweaty kid with the stitch for far too long. Fortunately, the puppy fat seems to be shedding, as the company has announced it’ll finally launch its own LTE in June. The bulk of the network will center around Sydney and Perth, while citizens of Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Newcastle, Wollongong and the Gold Coast can expect “some coverage” for the time being. The company hasn’t said what it’ll do in the way of charging for the new services, but if you’re already a Vodafone customer with an LTE-capable handset, then those devices will be activated alongside the national rollout. Hooroo!
If you’re wanting to take advantage of Verizon‘s 4G LTE in your home, and are wanting a device that both wired and wireless devices can connect to, Verizon just released a new router that does the trick. Simply named the 4G LTE Router, this bad boy can take on ethernet connections and WiFi connections at the same time. It can support up to a whopping 20 WiFi connections, and has four ethernet ports on the back.
The router is made by Netgear, and it looks to be a rather small and thin router, with two antennae that tower above the device. Verizon says that the router is available for purchase right now, and it’ll cost you $99 after signing a two-year contract and sending in a $50 mail-in rebate. Or you can buy the router outright for $269.
If you’re already on one of Verizon’s Share Everything plans, you can easily add the router to your plan for only $20 per month. Of course, you might want to bump up the amount of geebees that you have, since connecting multiple device to the router is sure to take a hit on your data allotment, especially considering how fast Big Red’s LTE can be.
However, it’s rather odd to see Verizon promoting a router, but we suppose that the company’s mobile hotspot device may not have enough oompf for some users. Considering that the router can support up to 24 devices total at once, we have to say that it’s one device that you don’t see everyday, and it could be great for larger parties or work events where people need to stay connected.
It’s no doubt that AT&T is trying to catch up to Verizon when it comes to their LTE network, but AT&T is slowly gaining ground. The carrier announced today that they’ve added LTE in 14 new markets in various areas across the US, including Mount Vernon, Washington and Fresno, California. Customers in these areas will now be able to get faster speeds while browsing on the go.
The 12 other markets that AT&T announced today are Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Arkansas; Fort Smith, Arkansas; Palm Coast, Florida; Lakeland-Winter Haven Florida; Fort Pierce, Florida; Mount Dora, Florida; Carbondale-Marion Illinois; Houma/Thibodaux, Louisana; Jefferson City, Missouri; Las Cruces, New Mexico; Binghamton, New York; and Temple/Killeen Texas.
While Verizon has the edge when it comes to the largest LTE network in the US, AT&T claims its LTE network is the fastest out of the two, claiming that users on the carrier’s LTE can reach speeds that are up to 10 times faster than 3G. Of course, that all depends where you’re at and how good your signal is.
AT&T now claims to be covering 288 million people with its 4G LTE network, and they plan to reach 300 million by the time 2014 rolls around. Back in December, Verizon boasted 250 million people were covered by their LTE network. We don’t know what the exact number is now, but we do know that over 470 markets in the US have Big Red’s LTE.
The Casio G’z0ne Commando has been a rather quiet option on Verizon’s network, but for those wanting a rugged and tough smartphone on Big Red’s network, the Commando is a very safe bet. It’s even a better option now because a new version of the phone was seen making its way through the FCC, equipped with Verizon’s blazingly-fast 4G LTE.
Formally called the Casio G’z0ne Commando 811, the new handset comes with an all-new look on top of the brand new LTE chip. Of course, it’s not the most beautiful phone to look at, but if it’s protection from rain, dust, drops, etc. that you’re looking for. the Commando 811 may be the phone for you.
It’s very similar to our recently-reviewed Kyocera Torque, only this newer version is getting a bigger screen, a front-facing camera, and possibly an upgrade to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean based on the new navigation-key arrangement at the bottom of the device. And of course, it’s got the black and red color scheme that Verizon is notorious for on its Android handsets.
Nothing is official yet, but we should be hearing from Verizon and Casio with an official announcement sometime soon. It just cleared from the FCC, so it should only be a matter of time before those that need a viable option for a rugged smartphone equipped with LTE will be able to grab the Commando 811 from Big Red.
So, previous taxi WiFi solutions were too slow, or you weren’t underground. What’s a smartphone-tethered Londoner on the hunt for WiFi supposed to do? The current answer is to flag down one of London’s 40 4GEE taxis, all of which will be loaded with WiFi router connected to EE, the UK’s only LTE network. If you’re not dahhn sahhf, you’ll still be able to pick up the signal in ten cabs that’ll be circling Birmingham. Ironically, these 4G-ready black cabs will no longer be black. Nope, they’ll be coated in the turquoise hues of the EE network, which should make them easier to spot. Anyone living in either metropolis should have no troubles keeping up with new Doctor Who, Downton Abbey or Peep Show ever again. At least for the next three months, which is how long the service is set to last.
Have you eyed the LTE version of Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD 8.9, yet remained skittish about buying such a relatively expensive tablet sight-unseen? AT&T is now willing to accommodate you: stop by an AT&T retail store from April 5th onward and you can pick up a 32GB model in person. The carrier is also offering an alternative purchase model. The $399 contract-free purchase is still available for those who want their freedom, but the initial price can drop to $249 for anyone willing to sign a two-year contract for a data plan. While either is still a lot of money to throw at Amazon’s ecosystem, it’s good to know that we can at least minimize the qualms surrounding an impulse purchase.
Want to get a Nokia Lumia device on T-Mobile’s network and take advantage of the carrier’s newly announce LTE capabilities? Well if the Nokia Lumia 810 was on your list, you might want to rethink that decision because according to Randy Meyerson, Senior Director of Product Marketing at T-Mobile, the Lumia 810 will unfortunately not be able to receive the update that would enable its LTE connectivity. According to Meyerson, “I’m following up as per my note last night. Unfortunately, the Nokia Lumia 810 is not upgradable to LTE. While it is true that it has a chipset that is LTE-capable in certain circumstances, the variant that was used in this device can’t be enabled for LTE.”
Indications of the Lumia 810 being LTE-enabled were discovered earlier this year through an FCC filing. However the Lumia 810 was not mentioned as one of the devices that would have its LTE capabilities enabled as only the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 was mentioned. In any case if the Lumia 810 is the handset you were after, we guess you will just have to make do without 4G LTE, at least for now.
Three’s CEO could teach Vodafone’s CEO a thing or two about diplomacy. Whereas Vittorio Colao dismissed British LTE users as “technofreaks“, Dave Dyson has merely said that he’s “fairly relaxed” about upgrading Three’s network. During a quarterly earnings report yesterday, he said he’s in “no rush for LTE” and told people not to expect Three’s newly acquired chunks of LTE spectrum to be brought to life until Q4 of this year. He intends to wait and see how O2 and Vodafone position themselves, and that’s fine — just so long as he sticks to the earlier promise not to charge extra for unlimited LTE data.
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Want to get a Nokia Lumia device on T-Mobile’s network and take advantage of the carrier’s newly announce LTE capabilities? Well if the Nokia Lumia 810 was on your list, you might want to rethink that decision because according to Randy Meyerson, Senior Director of Product Marketing at T-Mobile, the Lumia 810 will unfortunately not be able to receive the update that would enable its LTE connectivity. According to Meyerson, “I’m following up as per my note last night. Unfortunately, the Nokia Lumia 810 is not upgradable to LTE. While it is true that it has a chipset that is LTE-capable in certain circumstances, the variant that was used in this device can’t be enabled for LTE.”
